


atrium

by regim0n_z



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28887579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regim0n_z/pseuds/regim0n_z
Summary: Remember that time you caught a fish with your bare hands?Remember that time a storm destroyed your favorite boat?Remember how warm the island was? Remember the sand? Remember laying out in the sun?A new memory surfaced. But this one was different from the others.Remember that time there was someone new on your island?
Kudos: 2





	atrium

For a year, Sora slept. Laid to rest inside his own cottage of darkness, but not the oppressive kind. A comfortable blackness. The kind of darkness you live inside after you’ve closed your eyes, laying your head safely in your own bed, the dangers of the world miles away now, and you’re home. A gentle, protective darkness. It lulled him to sleep and it kept him there.

Inside that darkness, Sora watched the truths of his own memories shift and break, morph about into something different, then melt away. He couldn’t see them if he tried to examine their parts directly, only if he didn’t focus on it too hard. Like the light show that played behind your eyelids when the cones and rods in your retina tried to make sense of their own inner mechanisms. Abstract, and colorful. A memory would float by. Resurface in his consciousness. Someone speaking to him directly. 

_Remember that time you got in a fight with Riku? He got really upset when you told someone about it. Pulled you into the secret place alone. Angry at first, but then he talked about his feelings. You’d never seen him like that before._

And melt away again. Sora couldn’t remember what he had just seen, just slate grays and cool mossy greens it left, but somehow he felt a little more whole afterwards.

_Remember that time the adults were all upset about something? You never found out what that was._

Something stirred. Something like longing.

_Remember that time you went to the island without telling anyone? Your mom was so mad. But she said it was just ‘cuz she was worried about you. You felt really bad about it._

Somehow, he really missed his home.

_Remember that time Riku told you about the paopu fruit? You said you wanted to share it with him, but he made fun of you. You didn’t get why until you grew up. He kept making fun of you for a long time. Probably still would._

_Remember that time you caught a fish with your bare hands?_

_Remember that time a storm destroyed your favorite boat?_

_Remember how warm the island was? Remember the sand? Remember laying out in the sun?_

A new memory surfaced. But this one was different from the others somehow. It came along with little sparks and pops, unnaturally filtering in through his subconscious. It’s edges were tinged with orange and purple. 

_Remember that time there was someone new on your island?_

Like the sky after the sun had just set.

_Remember how you only heard rumors at first? Remember how everyone was gathered together, talking to someone? Remember when they parted ways to introduce you to---_

The memory abruptly came to a stop. Dizzyingly fast, like hitting a roadblock at high speeds. Made his head spin. Only upon further inspection did Sora realize it was because there was a gaping hole at the center of it, even one that he could see. And like a breach in his walls, that hole allowed a festering of heavy, oppressive darkness to leak out into his peaceful cottage and muddy it, infecting the calm darkness he was keeping there. Freezing it over. It only hung around a few seconds, long enough to make him feel numb and sick and bad, just bad, before it finally melt away into nothing, like the rest of the memories did. 

Sora couldn’t remember what he had seen afterward. Next memory.

_Remember the first time Riku’s dad brought you to the island? Remember how big it felt?_

_Remember that one summer you grew just a little bit taller than Riku? It didn't last long. But it was pretty funny how mad he got._

_Remember that time you were building the raft? You and Riku were so close to being finished, but you still needed help tying one specific knot from---_

The memory stopped. Tried to continue again.

_Remember how the raft was only half the size you expected it to be? You and---_

Stopped.

_\---were trying to fit all your supplies on it, and still leave room. Then you asked---_

Stopped.

_\---and Riku tried to tell---_

Ow.

_\---so you gave up. And decided to bring more coconuts instead?_

The memory frazzled and spiked, and by that point Sora was swimming nearly up to his ears in bad darkness. It had hands now, grabbing and feeling around him, trying to steal something out of him.

Then, it all melted away. Bad darkness, into cool, peaceful nothingness. Relief.

 _Oh,_ the same voice said softly. _Those were some pretty bad memories, weren’t they?_

The voice floated around intangible, spotting in and out of his subconscious the same way the memories did. Sora wouldn’t have been able to agree or disagree if he had heard it anyway. He didn’t have the ability to do many things. Just exist, allow the things to come and go inside his cottage, and admire them with the smallest amount of perception he had.

 _I’ll… I’ll fix those for you. I promise,_ the voice said. And if Sora examined it closer, he might have been able to see something there. Faint notes of color, a melancholy blue. Tiny drops of it rippling into his vision every time the voice spoke. He didn’t know why. But it made him feel sad.

_Why don’t you sleep some more?_

And all Sora saw were the last tinges of blue before he sunk further, deeper into the comforting caress of darkness, into a place his memories didn’t reach. And he slept.


End file.
